Secure Processing of Secure Information in a Non-Secure Environment

ABSTRACT

A secured process sourcing and work management system for processing secure information in a non-secure environment is disclosed. The system permits a user, referred to herein as a customer or requestor, to submit a project, involving a human intelligence task (“HIT”), referred to as a task or task specification, to be performed with respect to secure, confidential or sensitive information, referred to herein as secure information, and have that project completed in a non-secure environment without compromising the security, confidentiality or sensitivity of the secure information. The system may be incorporated into the requestor&#39;s workflow, receiving projects therefrom and providing the results thereto. Further, a system is disclosed for implementing a processing workflow for such tasks, the system permitting, based on projects submitted by requestors, the “posting” or distribution of jobs, and subsequent management thereof, to be performed by a workforce operating in or via a non-secure-environment, while protecting the underlying security, confidentiality or sensitivity of the overall project.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/643,418, filed Dec. 20, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. ______,which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

As much as computer and automation technology has been advanced, thereare still some tasks which a computer is unable to perform or at leastnot perform as well or as efficiently as a human being. Such tasksinclude both subjective and objective based tasks, such asdescribing/categorizing a picture, transcribing an audio recordinginvolving multiple speakers, etc. Some companies leverage suchdeficiencies, such as to secure resources or otherwise inhibitcomputer-automated attacks or abuse. For example, the Captchachallenge-response test, promulgated by Carnegie Mellon University,utilizes a test which presents words or alphanumeric strings hidden indistorted or obscured images and requires the user to enter what theysee, as a security test to confound automated systems and ensure that ahuman being is actually interacting with the protected system. However,for other companies, these deficiencies represent both an impediment toefficient workflows and a source of increasing costs.

These types of tasks are often referred to as human intelligence tasks(“HIT”'s) because they depend on the human intellect to be accomplishedor accomplished effectively and/or efficiently. Companies whose businessworkflow depends on HIT's often need to employ a substantial and/orhighly skilled work force in order to complete these types of tasks. Forexample, an Internet search engine company needing to describe andcatalog a library of pictures so that they may be searchable may requirea large work force in order to perform the task on a large amount ofdata in a reasonable amount of time.

To assist companies which depend on HIT's, services have been developedto outsource the performance of these tasks to foreign countriesoffering large low-wage labor pools or, alternatively, to an Internetbased community of voluntary, part-time or ad-hoc workers/independentcontractors. An exemplary service of this type is offered by Amazon.com,known as the Mechanical Turk or MTurk, which allows a company or otherentity to present an HIT to an Internet community, offering compensationin exchange for performance of the task.

While such systems have evolved to fill the need for a human workforceto perform simple HIT's, many businesses are unable to take advantage ofsuch services due to the secure or confidential nature of the HIT thatthey need to have performed. For example, distributing a task involvingthe transcription of social security numbers to an Internet based ad-hocworkforce would present issues of privacy protection and liability.Therefore, these businesses must rely on an internal trusted work force,operating under suitable controls/security measures, to perform thenecessary tasks.

Accordingly, there is a need for a system that would permit theoutsourcing of HIT's involving secure and/or confidential information tonon-secure environments without compromising the information or creatingundue liability.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts of a system for processing secure information in anon-secure environment according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary project, and components thereof, as utilizedby the system of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart showing exemplary operation of the system ofFIG. 1.

FIG. 4 depicts an exemplary computer system for use with the system ofFIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS AND PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

By way of introduction, an accessible and secured process sourcing andwork management system for processing secure information in a non-secureenvironment is disclosed. The system may be deployed organizationally,locally, regionally and/or globally in either a publicly accessibleand/or restricted access implementation. The system permits a user,referred to herein as a customer or requestor, to submit a project,involving a human intelligence task (“HIT”), referred to as a task ortask specification, to be performed with respect to secure, confidentialor sensitive information, referred to herein as secure information, andhave that project completed in a non-secure environment withoutcompromising the security, confidentiality or sensitivity of the secureinformation. As will be described, the system may be incorporated intothe requestor's workflow, receiving projects therefrom and providing theresults thereto. Further, a system is disclosed for implementing aprocessing workflow for such tasks, the system permitting, based onprojects submitted by requestors, the “posting” or distribution of jobs,and subsequent management thereof, to be performed by a workforceoperating in or via a non-secure-environment, while protecting theunderlying security, confidentiality or sensitivity of the overallproject. The workforce may include an at-will population of participantsselected from the general public or from a subset thereof and may belimited to a selective workforce.

As used herein, a workflow is defined as the activities, e.g. tasks orprocedural steps, entities involved, i.e. actors or participants, suchas people, organizations, machines, etc., inputs and outputs, states,requisite tools, and the relationships therebetween, for each step in aprocess. The various activities, entities, inputs, outputs, tools andrelationships which make up the workflow are referred to as workflowelements. While computers and computer programs may be included asworkflow elements, the disclosed embodiments are directed to workflowswhich further include workflow elements involving human decision making,human judgment, human-to-human interaction, or other subjective,arbitrary or illogical bases.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a system 100 for processing secureinformation in a non-secure environment according to one embodiment. Asused herein, a non-secure environment refers to a logical and/orphysical electronic and/or business-process environment in which abusiness, government or other entity, such as a project requestordescribed below, may have little or no substantial control over theinformation, or access thereto, that is being processed and/or storedtherein due to a lack of suitable physical, electronic and/or legalsafeguards, such as tamper detection mechanisms, security protocols,confidentiality agreements, government provided legal protections, etc.Non-secure environments may include any environment located outside of aparticular entity's secure environment, and may include another secureenvironment coupled therewith via a non-secure medium. It will beappreciated that whether a particular environment is secure ornon-secure is relative to a particular entity and that an environmentwhich is considered secure by one entity may be considered non-secure byanother entity. Exemplary non-secure environments include personalcomputers coupled with the Internet via publicly accessiblecommunications links or otherwise not under the control of an entitywhich operates a secure environment connected therewith. For example, acompany may operate a secure Intranet to which only company employeeshave access from secure communications links. This Intranet may befurther securely coupled with the Internet to provide access theretowhile protecting the Intranet from non-employee access. In this example,the Internet and any entity connected thereto which is not undersuitable control of the company, such as via suitable communicationssecurity protocols, may be considered a non-secure environment.

The system 100 includes a project receiver 108 for receiving a project102 from a project requestor (not shown), such as an internal orexternal customer of the operator of the system 100. In one embodiment,the system 100 is provided by a service provider (not shown) torequestors who are customers of the service provider. The serviceprovider may charge the customers for use of the system 100 or seekother compensation for the use thereof. Alternatively or in additionthereto, the system 100 may be provided/operated by a business for thebenefit of internal requestors. In one embodiment, the project receiver108 is a web site or web service executing on a web server andaccessible by users via a network 122 using a web browser program, suchas Internet Explorer published by Microsoft Corporation, located inRedmond, Wash. Other browser programs may also be used, such as Firefox,published by the Mozilla Organization. The network 122, as well asnetworks 124, 126 and 128, may be a secure network, such as an Intranetor Extranet, or may be an non-secure network, such as a publiclyaccessible network, e.g. the Internet. In the case of a non-securenetwork 122, security protocols, such as Secure Sockets Layer,encryption protocols or combinations thereof, may be used. Further, thenetwork 122 may be implemented via a medium that is wired, wireless or acombination thereof.

The project receiver 108 allows a requestor to submit a project 102 tothe system 100 for processing and subsequently receive the results 214thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, in one embodiment a project 102 includes aspecification of the task 106 to be performed and at least one object,such as a secure object 104, or specification thereof, on which thespecified task 106 is to be performed. It will be appreciated, that aproject 102 is a logical construct which includes a task specification106 and a secure object 104. However, the task specification 106 may beprovided to the system 100, such as via the project receiver 108,independently, both temporally and spatially, of, or in conjunctionwith, the secure object 104 and that a given task specification 106 maypertain to more than one secure object 104, each of which may beprovided to the project receiver 108 along with or independent from thetask specification 106. Alternatively, the task specification 106 may beimplied based on or inferred from other factors, such as the secureobject 104 or other parameters related to the requestor or the system100. For example, in one embodiment, the system 100 may be dedicated toconverting handwritten text to computer comprehensible data andtherefore the task 106 may be inferred from the dedicated nature of thesystem 100 to perform such a conversion on any handwritten text providedthereby obviating the need to explicitly specify the task 106. As willbe described, a secure object 104 includes at least a portion thereofwhich is considered secure, confidential and/or sensitive at least bythe requestor. Task specifications 106, also referred to as tasks 106,are the specification, explicit and/or implicit, of actions, e.g.instructions or directions, to be taken with respect to the secureobject 104. Tasks 106 include those tasks which a human being is capableof performing and which a computer may be incapable of performing at allor in an effective and/or efficient manner, such as data entry,conversion, translation, verification, transcription, analysis,identification, description, categorization, classification, selection,indexing, correction, adjustment, isolation, relation, qualityassessment or assurance, or combinations thereof. Exemplary tasks 106include: objective tasks, such as transcription, conversion, translationand/or data entry of audible, handwritten or otherwise machineunintelligible information and/or verification of a machine basedtranscription, conversion and/or translation; or subjective tasksincluding reviewing, opining on and/or processing of audio, visual,tactile, olfactory, gustatory or other information, such as audio orphoto analysis, identification, categorization, classification and/orselection, e.g. selection of the ‘best’ photograph from among aselection of photographs, identify a dominant color or sound,distinguish and/or isolate images or sounds from other images or soundsor from noise, provide a context, description or descriptive terms foran image or sound, recognize and/or identify portions and/or attributesof an image or sound, correct, alter and/or adjust an image or sound,such as the quality or intelligibility thereof, relate an image or soundto a concept and/or to other images or sounds based on content,attributes or a combination thereof. Further, tasks 106 may includequality control tasks such as verifying the quality of the performanceof one of the tasks 106 described above. In one embodiment, the tasks106 include the task of transcribing handwritten information provided ona form (the secure object 104), such as a name, address or socialsecurity number, into computer intelligible data. In an alternateembodiment, the task 106 may include verifying a machine translation ortranscription, such as verification of the results of an opticalcharacter recognition process.

The secure object 104 includes the data or information, or aspecification thereof, on which the task 106 is to be performed and mayinclude visual, audio or other information or data, in analog or digitalform, or combinations thereof. As will be described below, at least someportion of the secure object 104 is considered, e.g. comprehended, atleast by the requestor, as secure, confidential or otherwise sensitive,while other portions may not be considered as such. Exemplary secureobjects 104 may include one or more data files, facsimile pages,pictures, images, audio recordings, or combinations thereof. In oneembodiment, the secure object 104 includes one or more digitally scannedimages of handwritten documents and/or hand-filled-in forms, such as adocument having pre-printed or otherwise defined regions for the entryof information. In an alternate embodiment, the secure object 104 mayinclude digital data representative of the conversion of a handwrittendocument or hand-filled-in form into a machine intelligible format, suchas into a data file generated by optical character recognition for useby a computer program or storage in a database. It will be appreciatedthat the system 100 may also be utilized with projects 102 involvingobjects that contain no secure, confidential or sensitive information.Such non-secure objects (not shown) may be processed the same as secureobjects 104 as will be described or they may be processed in a differentmanner.

A secure object 104 is further capable of being separated,automatically, manually or a combination thereof, into one or moresecure and/or non-secure sub-objects 204, each sub-object including data208 and a context 206 associated therewith. With regards to securesub-objects 204, the context 206 at least characterizes the data 208 asbeing secure, confidential or sensitive, where this characterization isnot otherwise discernable from the data 208 alone. The context 206 mayinclude an attribute associated with the data 208, such as acharacteristic of the data 208 or a label, tag or data type associatedwith the data 208, identification of the source or destination of thedata 208, a relationship with other data 208 of another sub-object 204,or a combination thereof. For example, the context 206 may include alabel identifying the data 208 as representative of a name, a socialsecurity number, a telephone number, credit card number, personalidentification number, address or portion thereof, birth date, identityof a relative, etc. Other examples of contexts 206 include the number ofnumeric digits, such as six digits, which may indicate that the data 208is a calendar date, ten digits, which may indicate that the data 208represents a telephone number with area code, nine digits which mayindicate that the data 208 represents a social security number, orsixteen digits which may indicate that the data 208 represents a creditcard number. Where the data includes the name of a month or day of theweek, the context 206 thereof may imply a calendar date. In thedisclosed embodiments, as will be described below, contexts 206 thatidentify data as secure, confidential and/or sensitive are separablefrom the associated data 208 such that such contexts 206 may not bediscerned from the data 208 alone, e.g. a user viewing the data 208would not comprehend the context 206 of that data 208, e.g. that thedata 208 represented a social security number for example. It will beappreciated that the described hierarchical arrangement/structure of thesecure object 104 is for descriptive convenience and may beimplementation dependent. Accordingly, any suitablearrangement/structure of the secure object 104 may be utilized with thedisclosed system 100.

The system 100 is particularly suited to those tasks 106 that arecapable of being performed on data 208 without knowledge and/orindependent of the context 206 thereof, or at least those tasks 106 thatare capable of being performed on data 208 without knowledge and/orindependent of a context 206 that characterizes that data 208 as secure,confidential and/or sensitive. For example, the completion of a task 106of transcribing hand-written social security numbers into computerintelligible data does not require knowledge that the information infact represents social security numbers but instead merely requires therecognition of the numeric digits and the arrangement thereof.Similarly, completion of a task 106 transcribing an audio recording of ameeting does not require knowledge of the identities of the speakers orthat the transcriber even possess the entire recording. In oneembodiment, the specified task 106 may be further divided into one ormore sub-tasks 202 corresponding to the one or more sub-objects 204,each sub-task 202 being capable of being performed on the context 206independent data 208 such that the performance of all the sub-tasks 202is substantially equivalent to the performance of the whole task 106 onthe whole secure object 104. For example, with respect to a task 106 totranscribe an audio recording (the secure object 104), the task 106 maybe sub-divided into sub-tasks 202, each of which is to transcribe aportion of the audio recording, i.e. the secure sub-objects 204 consistof portions of the audio recording. The audio recording may be dividedinto portions based on time, e.g. 5 minute segments, or by speakers,e.g. each speaker is separated out. Once each portion of the audiorecording has been transcribed, the results may be compiled into atranscription of the entire audio recording.

The packaging of a particular sub-task 202, either explicitly orimplicitly as will be described, along with one or more of theassociated data 208 with respect to which the sub-task 202 is to beperformed, and without the context 206 associated therewith, is referredto herein as a job 210. In one embodiment, data 208 derived from morethan one project 102 and/or secure object 104 may be packaged in asingle job 210, such as to improve efficiency where one or morerequestors submit more than one similar project 102 or secure object 104with similar tasks 106 to be performed. For example, where multiplehand-filled in forms are to be transcribed, a particular field, suitabledecontextualized, such as the zip code field, from all or a subset ofthe forms may be packaged together as a single job 210 for performanceof the transcription task by a single participant. While the disclosedembodiments will be discussed with reference to distributing jobs 210without the context 206 associated with the data 208 of the job 210, itwill be appreciated that where the context 206 does not characterize thedata 208 as secure, confidential or otherwise sensitive, the context 206may be included in the job 210. It will be appreciated that a job 210 isa logical construct which includes a sub-task specification 202 andassociated data 208. However, the sub-task 202 may be provided by thesystem 100, such as via the distributor 116, independently, bothtemporally and spatially, of, or in conjunction with, the associateddata 208 and that a given sub-task 202 may pertain to more than oneassociated data 208, each of which may be provided to a participantalong with or independent from the sub-task 202. Alternatively, thesub-task 202 may be implied based on or inferred from other factors,such as the associated data 208 or other parameters related to therequestor, the participant, such as their past experience orcapabilities, or the system 100. For example, in one embodiment, thesystem 100 may be dedicated to converting handwritten text to computercomprehensible data and therefore the sub-task 202 may be inferred fromthe dedicated nature of the system 100 to perform such a conversion onany handwritten text provided thereby obviating the need to explicitlyspecify the sub-task 202. Jobs 210 may further include additionalinformation such as instructions and/or an offer of compensation towhoever elects to perform the sub-task 202. Alternatively, or inaddition thereto, the job 210 may further include a client orserver-side executable computer program, such as an applet or otherlocally offline or on-line executable program, which facilitatesperformance of the sub-task 202 on the data 208, such a viewer/dataentry program and/or interface. In yet another alternative embodiment, ajob 210 may merely include one or more references, such as a secure orunsecure hypertext link or other network reference, to the sub-task 202and/or data 208 where the sub-task 202 and/or data 208 are available viathe referenced location, such as via a website. The referenced locationmay permit the downloading of the sub-task 202 and/or data 208 so thatthe sub-task 202 may be performed locally by the participant or thereferenced location may provide an execution/application environment inwhich the participant performs the sub-task 202 on the data 208, such asan on-line application environment, or a combination thereof. As will bedescribed, the system 100 distributes the job(s) 210 to, or via, anon-secure environment to a workforce (not shown) where the particularsub-tasks 202 will be performed with respect to the associated data 208.The results thereof are referred to as the job results 212, jobfragments or fragments, and may include non-performance of the sub-task202 or other information, such as where the participant is unable toperform the sub-task 202, e.g. due to a system error such as incompleteor unintelligible data 208, or refuses, forgets or otherwise fails toperform the sub-task 202, e.g. within a prescribed time period. The jobresults 212 of each distributed job 210 are returned to the system 100subsequent to completion (or the lack thereof). Once all of the jobresults 212 are received for all of the jobs 210 for a given secureobject 104, they are then compiled or otherwise assembled,re-associating the context 206 if necessary, to generate the overalltask results 214 representative of the completion of the task 106 on thesecure object 104. Job results 212 representative of an incomplete orincorrect completion of the sub-task 202 may be re-distributed forsuccessful completion to the same or a different participant.

As used herein, the workforce refers to the participating human actors,a.k.a. participants, who will complete the sub-tasks 202 of the jobs210. The workforce participants may include employees of the requestor,employees of the operator of the system 100, independent contractors, adhoc employees, volunteers or combinations thereof. Workforceparticipants may participate by accessing the system 100 via a network126, 128, such as via the Internet, to obtain or “pull” jobs 210, jobs210 may be “pushed” by the system to workforce participants, or acombination thereof, and to return the job results 212. The variousworkforce participants may have varying skills sets or other attributes,such as availability, cost, quality of work product, etc. whichdifferentiate them. Such attributes may be evaluated and/or tracked bythe system 100 and utilized to selectively match jobs 210 with workforceparticipants. As was described, workforce participants may be locatedin, or communicate with the system 100 via, a non-secure environment.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the project receiver 108 is further coupledwith an object separator 110 and a task divider 114. Herein, the phrase“coupled with” is defined to mean directly connected to or indirectlyconnected through one or more intermediate components. Such intermediatecomponents may include both hardware and software based components. Theproject receiver 108 separates the received project 102 into the task106 or the specification thereof, and the secure object 104 with respectto which the task 106 is to be performed. Where the task 106 isseparately provided, implied or inferred, such as in advance withanother secure object 104, the project receiver 108 obtains or otherwiseidentifies the task 106 associated with the secure object 104. If eitherthe task 106 or the secure object 104 is received alone, the projectreceiver 108 may store or otherwise buffer the task 106 or secure object104 until the other is received. The task 106 is provided/communicatedto the task divider 114 and the secure object 104 isprovided/communicated to the object separator 110. The object separatoris further coupled with an object disassociator 112. The objectdisassociator 112 and task divider 114 are both coupled with adistributor 116. The system 100 further includes a results receiver 118and a compiler 120 coupled with the results receiver 118.

The object separator 110 receives the secure object 104 and divides itinto one or more secure sub-objects 204, each including data 208 and acontext 206 associated therewith, as was described above. In oneembodiment wherein the secure object 104 includes a digitalrepresentation, such as a scan, of a form document having predefinedfields for the entry of handwritten information, the object separator110 may utilize a template or overlay which identifies the variousregions of the document associated with the form fields allowing eachregion, i.e. each field, to be identified and separated out. Thetemplate or overlay may be defined using Extensible Markup Language(“XML”) or other suitable methodology. Each of the secure sub-objects204 is then provided to the object disassociator 112 which disassociatesthe data 208 from the context 206, such as by separating the label ortag from the data 208 which it describes, or by modifying the data 208,e.g. decomposing it into smaller portions, so as to obfuscate anyattributes thereof, or combinations thereof. The disassociated context206 may be stored (not shown) for later use, such as when the jobresults 212 are returned for the particular sub-task 202 performed onthe associated data 208. The disassociated data 208 is then provided tothe distributor 116 as will be described. In one embodiment, the objectseparator 110 and object disassociator 112 may be combined and performthe separation of the secure object 104 into one or more securesub-objects 204 and the decontextualization of those secure-sub objects204 in the same operation. The disassociation of the data 208 from itsassociated context 206 may be an automated process wherein the objectdisassociator 112 identifies the data 208 and the context 206, such asby utilizing a template or overlay, pattern recognition, programmedidentification methodology, such as an XML specification, or otherautomated mechanism. Alternatively, the disassociation of the data 208from its associated context 206 may be a manual process wherein theobject disassociator 112 receives a specification separately identifyingthe data 208 and context 206, from the requestor and/or from theoperator of the system 100. In yet another alternative embodiment, thedisassociation of the data 208 from its associated context 206 may be acombination of a manual and automated process wherein the objectdisassociator 112 receives a specification identifying the data 208 andcontext 206, from the requestor and/or from the operator of the system100, such that the context 206 may be automatically disassociated fromthe data 208 by the object disassociator 112.

The task divider 114 receives the specified, implied or inferred task106 and divides the task 106 into sub-tasks 202, each of which may beperformed with respect to the disassociated data 208 of each securesub-object 204. The task divider 114 generates the sub-tasks 202 suchthat the compiled results of the performance of all of the sub-tasks 202substantially approximates the result that would be achieved if the task106 were to be performed on the secure object 104. In one embodiment,each sub-task 202 is substantially the same as the task 106, wherein thedata with respect to which each sub-task 202 is to be performed varies.For example, wherein the task 106 may be to transcribe a list of twohundred handwritten social security numbers into machine intelligibledata, each sub-task 202 may be to similarly transcribe a portionthereof, e.g. one sub-task 202 may be to transcribe the first half ofeach social security number while another sub-task 202 is transcribe theremaining portion. Alternatively, different sub-tasks 202 may need to beperformed on different data 208 to achieve substantially the sameresults as the performance of the task 106 on the secure object 104. Thesub-tasks 202 are provided/communicated to the distributor 116. In oneembodiment, the task divider 114 automatically divides the task 106 into sub-tasks 202, such as based on the secure sub-objects 204 and/or thedisassociated data 208. Alternatively, the division of tasks 106 intosub-tasks 202 may be a manual, or a combination of a manual andautomated, process whereby the requestor and/or the system 100 operatorprovide a specification to the task divider 114, such as within the task106 itself, specifying the division of the task 106 into sub-tasks 202.It will be appreciated that in systems 100 where the task 106 andsub-tasks 202 may be implied or inferred throughout, such as in system100 which is dedicated to single task 106 or sub-task 202, thefunctionality of the task divider may also be implied or inferred ratherthan explicitly provided for.

The distributor 116 receives the disassociated data 208 and thesub-tasks 202 associated therewith if specified, generates one or morejobs 210 based thereon and arranges, automatically, manually or acombination thereof, to have the jobs 210 performed/completed, such asby one or more available participants of the workforce, defined above.Each job 210 may include a sub-task 202, where explicitly specified,plus the disassociated data 208 with respect to which the sub-task 202is to be performed. The jobs 210 are then distributed to a workforce tobe completed. In one embodiment, the distributor 116 includes a network126, e.g. Internet, accessible web site which users may access using apersonal computer and web browser program. The web site may permit theuser to take and/or accept (a.k.a. “pull”) one or more jobs 210.Alternatively, or in addition thereto, the distributor 116 may be incommunication with a standing workforce, e.g. users or employees thathave volunteered or have been hired or otherwise engaged to be availableto accept and complete jobs 210. In this embodiment, the distributor 116may send jobs 210 to selected users to be completed (a.k.a. “push”). Instill another embodiment, the distributor 116 maybe in communicationwith a commercial job 210 distribution system, such as the Mturk systemmade available by Amazon.com, where jobs 210 are communicated to beultimately disseminated to users for completion. Jobs 210 may bedistributed and/or queued for distribution on a priority or other basis,such as first-in-first-out. Further, the distributor may limit thepresentation of available jobs 210 and/or couple incentives with higherpriority jobs 210 to ensure the priority distribution thereof. As wasdescribed above, each job 210 contains data 208 that has beendisassociated with its context 206. As such, whoever elects to completethe job 210 should not be able to discern any secure, confidential orsensitive nature of the data 208, thereby allowing the job 210 to becompleted in a non-secure environment while protecting the data 208.Accordingly, the workforce to which the distributor 116 distributes thejobs 210 need not be located in a secure environment. To further ensurethe protections of the data 208, the distributor 116 may furtherimplement additional security protocols, such as a protocol to prevent aparticular user from performing multiple jobs 210 generated from thesame project 102 on the chance that the context 206 of the data 208 ofone job 201 may be discernable from the collective jobs 210 the user isperforming. Further aspects and alternatives to the distributor 116 willbe discussed below.

Once a job 210 is completed, the results 212 therefrom are received bythe results receiver 118. In one embodiment, the results receiver 118may include a network 128, e.g. Internet, accessible web site which auser accesses to submit the results of a job 210. The results receiver118 may be any suitable interface for receiving the job results 212 of agiven job 210 and may be a part of the distributor 116. In oneembodiment, the distributor 116 and results receiver 118 are combinedinto a web site to which a user accesses to obtain a job 210, performthe sub-task 202 therein on and/or off-line with the web site andprovide the results 212 thereof. The contents of the job results 212 aredependent upon the implementation of the system 100 but will generallyinclude the resultant work product of the performance of the sub-task202 on the disassociated data 208. For example, the job results 212 maya digital data file containing machine intelligible data. Where theparticipant is unable or incapable of performing the sub-task 202, thelack of performance and any underlying reasons therefore may be providedas job results 212. The received job results 212 areprovided/communicated to the compiler 120 which assembles the jobresults 212 for all of jobs 210 generated from a given project 102,automatically, manually or a combinations thereof, into the overall taskresults 214. The results receiver 118 and/or compiler 120 may furtherevaluate the job results 212 prior to assembly, such as to detect anyerrors or otherwise perform quality control checking. For example, inone embodiment, each job 210 may be distributed to more than oneparticipant, where the job results 212 of each performance are comparedto ensure accuracy, etc. Alternatively, test jobs 210, where the correctjob results 212 are already known to the system 100 may be utilized toensure quality. Where the evaluation reveals unacceptable job results212 or the indication of non-performance of the sub-task 202, theresults receiver 118 and/or compiler 120 may be in communication withthe distributor 116, or otherwise arrange to redistribute the particularjob 210 to the same or a different participant to be performed again.The task results 214 are then provided to the original requestor whorequested completion of the particular project 102. In one embodiment,the compiler 120 may include a network 124, e.g. Internet, accessibleweb site which a project requestor accesses to receive their taskresults 214. The compiler 120 may be a part of the project receiver 108creating unified interface for receiving project 102 submissions andproviding the results 214 therefrom.

It will be appreciated that the system 100 may be implemented inhardware, software or a combination thereof, and that one or more of thecomponents thereof may be combined or, alternatively, sub-divided intoother functional units, to implement the described functionality.Further, the system 100 may include other components which are notshown. In one embodiment, the described functionality is implemented incomputer program logic stored in a memory device, such as a computermemory or computer storage device, and executable by one or moreprocessors to implement the described functionality. For example, thedescribed functionality may be implemented on a web server as one ormore network accessible web pages coupled with suitable back-end logic.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart showing exemplary operation of the system100 of FIG. 1 for completing a task 106 in a non-secure environment withrespect to a secure object 104. In one embodiment, the secure object 104may comprise computer incomprehensible information, the task 106comprising converting the computer incomprehensible information intocomputer comprehensible information. For example, the secure object 104may comprise a representation of a handwriting, a picture, an image, afacsimile, a document, an audio recording, a video recording, orcombinations thereof. Further, exemplary tasks 106 may include dataentry, conversion, translation, verification, transcription, analysis,identification, description, indexing, categorization, classification,selection, separation, isolation, recognition, sorting, correction,relation, opining, assessment, judgment or combinations thereof.

The operation of the system 100 includes: receiving, in a secureenvironment, a specification of the task 106 and the secure object 104with respect to which the task 106 is to be performed (block 302);dividing the secure object 104 into at least one or more securesub-objects 204 each comprising data 208 and a context 206 associatedtherewith, the context 206 characterizing the data 208 as secure (block304); and disassociating each data 208 of the one or more sub-objects204 from the associated context 206, the secure characterization of thedata 208 being substantially non-discernable from the disassociated data208 (block 306). In one embodiment, the context 206 comprises anattribute of the associated data 208 and the disassociating furthercomprises separating the attribute from the data 208. For example, theattribute may include a characteristic of the data 208, a labelassociated with the data 208, a tag associated with the data 208, a typeassociated with the data 208, a source of the data 208, a destination ofthe data 208, the data 208 of another secure sub object 204 or acombination thereof. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, theattribute may include a number of alphanumeric digits in the data 208wherein the disassociating further comprises dividing the data 208 intoat least two disassociated data, each of the at least two disassociateddata 208 comprising a sub-set of the number of alphanumeric digits suchthat the number of alphanumeric digits in the data 208 cannot bediscerned from each sub-set alone.

The operation of the system 100 further includes: dividing the task 106into one or more sub-tasks 202 to be performed with respect to thedisassociated data 208 of each of the one or more secure sub-objects 204(block 308); and distributing to the non-secure environment at least oneof the disassociated data 208 and a specification of the respectivesub-task 202 to be performed with respect thereto, such that the abilityto discern the secure characterization of the data 208 in the non-secureenvironment is substantially reduced (block 310). The distributing mayinclude arranging for the performance of the sub-task with respect to atleast one of the disassociated data with an available participant of aworkforce, the available participant being unaware of the securecharacterization of the data distributing the at least one of thedisassociated data and a specification of the respective sub-task to beperformed with respect thereto to the available participant.

In one embodiment, the operation of the system 100 further includes:receiving the results 212 of the performance of each sub-task 202 (block312); and compiling the results, the compilation 214 being substantiallysimilar to a result of the completion of the task on the secure object104 (block 314).

While the basic functionality of the system 100 to accept secureprojects 102 and disseminate jobs 210 to a workforce to complete theproject 102 without jeopardizing the security thereof has beendescribed, further aspects of the disclosed embodiments include project102, job 210 and workforce management functionality.

In particular, project management functionality may be provided whichallows a requestor to manage the completion of one or more projects 102by the system 100. Such functionality includes capabilities to specify aproject 102 submission, such as to specify the task 106 to be performedand the secure object 104 with respect to which the task 106 is to beperformed, the completion deadline, escalation, priority handling, theskills required or desired of participants, etc. Escalation relates tothe actions to be taken if a suitable participant cannot be located tohandle the jobs 210 within a designated time period. For example, therequestor may allow the jobs 210 to be distributed to a generalpopulation of participants if the results can be returned within adefined time limit. However, if the time limit is exceeded, the jobs 210should be distributed to a selectively chosen population, such as therequestor's own employees, who are likely to complete the jobs 210 inthe desired time frame. Priority handling relates to the order in whichthe jobs 210 are distributed and may control the queue order of the jobs210 for distribution and/or the incentive, such as the compensationlevel, offered for completion of the jobs 210. Thereby, higher priorityjobs 210 may be handled more quickly. Additionally, the interface maypermit the requestor to designate how the task 106 and/or secure object104 will be divided into sub-tasks 202 and sub-objects 204, e.g. byproviding a template, etc., such as to ensure the protection of theunderlying secure information. For example, a user interface may beprovided, such as a world wide web page based interface, which permits arequestor to specify and submit a particular project 102, such as byuploading the secure object 104. The interface may further permitspecification of the types of workers, e.g. the skill sets necessary, tocomplete the task 106, the expected results and/or the compensation thatmay be offered for such completion. In one embodiment, the interface isan application program interface which permits a requestor's workflowmanagement systems to directly interface with the system 100, submitprojects 102 for completion and receive the results 214 thereof. Theinterface may further permit monitoring and tracking of the progress ofcompletion of the project 102, such as by reporting the job results 212received for a given project 102. Where the system 100 is provided on afee-for-services basis, the interface may provide an account managementfunction permitting a requestor to view the status of their account,such as how much they presently owe the operator of the system 100 forservices rendered. The interface may also permit the reporting of errorsor problems and/or the selection of optional services such as qualitycontrol services. For example, a requestor may request double-blindkeying of data where multiple duplicate jobs 210 are distributed and theresults thereof compared to ensure the quality of the task results 214.Alternatively, one or more jobs 210 may include the task 202 ofvalidating the results 212 of another job 210.

Job 210 management functionality may further be provided to manage thedistribution of jobs 210 to a workforce, or otherwise arrange for one ormore workforce participants to complete the jobs 210, and the receipt ofthe job results 212 therefrom. Such functionality may include tracking,auditing and or quality control functions to ensure that all of the jobs210 are completed in a satisfactory and timely manner. In oneembodiment, where a worker is taking too long to complete a task 202 ofa job 210, the distributor 116 may pull the job 210 back or otherwisecancel the job 210 and redistribute the job 210 to another worker forcompletion. In another embodiment, selective job 210 distribution isimplemented whereby the distributor 116 tracks the capabilities and/orqualifications, such as the skill sets, of the various workforceparticipants and distributes jobs 210 to those participants based on acorrelation between specified requirements of the jobs 210 and thecapabilities/qualifications of the participants. For example, thedistributor 116 may be aware of which participants are fluent in theFrench language and thereby, distribute tasks 202 involving translationof the French language only to those participants that are qualified. Aswill be described below, functionality may be provided to allowparticipants to specify their capabilities or qualifications, orotherwise measure or improve these capabilities or qualifications, suchas by tests, e.g. test jobs 210 where the job results 210 are known tothe system 100 in advance and may be compared with the actual jobresults 210, or training. In yet another embodiment, the distributor 116offers compensation for satisfactory completion of jobs 210 so as toincentivise workforce participants to take on jobs 210. For example, thedistributor 116 may implement a “Dutch” auction or other compensationmechanism to incentivise participation. Other mechanisms of job 210distribution which may be implemented include subscription based systemswhereby workforce participants subscribe to be notified when jobs 210are available, or alternatively, to have available jobs 210 pushed tothem automatically.

In systems 100 offering compensation for job 210 completion, the system100 may merely act as a broker between the requestors and the workforceparticipants. Alternatively, the system 100 may offer compensationitself, recouping such expenses via the fees charged to requestors. Inparticular, workforce participants may be compensated via any availablecompensation mechanism, such as cash, check, direct deposit or PayPal.The system 100 may be aware of employment, tax and other regulatoryrequirements of the jurisdictions in which the system 100 operates andin which the workforce participants perform the jobs 210. Suchrequirements may be considered in the manner in which participants arecompensated as well as the nature of that compensation. For example, thesystem 100 may withhold suitable income taxes on behalf of ajurisdiction. In another example, certain non-monetary benefits, such ashealth or worker compensation insurance, may be provided in lien ofmonetary compensation in jurisdictions which mandate such benefits.

Workforce management functionality may also be provided to manage theworkforce participants available for the performance of jobs 210. Suchfunctionality may include interfaces, such as world wide web basedinterfaces, allowing individuals to elect, enroll or otherwise sign upto participate, withdraw from participation, receive training on how toparticipate or perform tasks 202, review ratings or reviews of theirperformance, review ratings/raking of their performance relative toother workforce participants, obtain jobs 210, or notification thereof,to perform, submit job results 212, receive and/or monitor earnedcompensation, or combinations thereof. In one embodiment, enrollment mayrequire the participant to pass a test, such as a test job 210, in orderto demonstrate their qualifications or capabilities to participate. Suchtesting may occur on a one-time or recurring basis.

Referring to FIG. 4, an illustrative embodiment of a general computersystem 400 is shown. The computer system 400 can include a set ofinstructions that can be executed to cause the computer system 400 toperform any one or more of the methods or computer based functionsdisclosed herein. The computer system 400 may operate as a standalonedevice or may be connected, e.g., using a network, to other computersystems or peripheral devices. Any of the components discussed above,including, but not limited to the project receiver 108, the objectseparator 110, the object disassociator 112, the task divider 114, thedistributor 116, the results receiver 118 and/or the compiler 120 may bea computer system 400 or a component in the computer system 400.

In a networked deployment, the computer system 400 may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a client-serveruser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 400 can alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a communications device, a wirelesstelephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner,a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personal trusted device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any other machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine In a particularembodiment, the computer system 400 can be implemented using electronicdevices that provide voice, video or data communication. Further, whilea single computer system 400 is illustrated, the term “system” shallalso be taken to include any collection of systems or sub-systems thatindividually or jointly execute a set, or multiple sets, of instructionsto perform one or more computer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the computer system 400 may include aprocessor 402, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. The processor 402 may be a component ina variety of systems. For example, the processor 402 may be part of astandard personal computer or a workstation. The processor 402 may beone or more general processors, digital signal processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, servers,networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations thereof, orother now known or later developed devices for analyzing and processingdata. The processor 402 may implement a software program, such as codegenerated manually (i.e., programmed).

The computer system 400 may include a memory 404 that can communicatevia a bus 408. The memory 404 may be a main memory, a static memory, ora dynamic memory. The memory 404 may include, but is not limited tocomputer readable storage media such as various types of volatile andnon-volatile storage media, including but not limited to random accessmemory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electricallyprogrammable read-only memory, electrically erasable read-only memory,flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media and the like. In oneembodiment, the memory 404 includes a cache or random access memory forthe processor 402. In alternative embodiments, the memory 404 isseparate from the processor 402, such as a cache memory of a processor,the system memory, or other memory. The memory 404 may be an externalstorage device or database for storing data. Examples include a harddrive, compact disc (“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card,memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device,or any other device operative to store data. The memory 404 is operableto store instructions executable by the processor 402. The functions,acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or described herein may beperformed by the programmed processor 402 executing the instructionsstored in the memory 404. The functions, acts or tasks are independentof the particular type of instructions set, storage media, processor orprocessing strategy and may be performed by software, hardware,integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and the like, operating aloneor in combination. Likewise, processing strategies may includemultiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and the like.

As shown, the computer system 400 may further include a display unit414, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emittingdiode (OLED), a flat panel display, a solid state display, a cathode raytube (CRT), a projector, a printer or other now known or later developeddisplay device for outputting determined information. The display 414may act as an interface for the user to see the functioning of theprocessor 402, or specifically as an interface with the software storedin the memory 404 or in the drive unit 406.

Additionally, the computer system 400 may include an input device 416configured to allow a user to interact with any of the components ofsystem 400. The input device 416 may be a number pad, a keyboard, or acursor control device, such as a mouse, or a joystick, touch screendisplay, remote control or any other device operative to interact withthe system 400.

In a particular embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 4, the computer system400 may also include a disk or optical drive unit 406. The disk driveunit 406 may include a computer-readable medium 410 in which one or moresets of instructions 412, e.g. software, can be embedded. Further, theinstructions 412 may embody one or more of the methods or logic asdescribed herein. In a particular embodiment, the instructions 412 mayreside completely, or at least partially, within the memory 404 and/orwithin the processor 402 during execution by the computer system 400.The memory 404 and the processor 402 also may include computer-readablemedia as discussed above.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium thatincludes instructions 412 or receives and executes instructions 412responsive to a propagated signal, so that a device connected to anetwork 420 can communicate voice, video, audio, images or any otherdata over the network 420. Further, the instructions 412 may betransmitted or received over the network 420 via a communication port918. The communication port 418 may be a part of the processor 402 ormay be a separate component. The communication port 418 may be createdin software or may be a physical connection in hardware. Thecommunication port 418 is configured to connect with a network 420,external media, the display 414, or any other components in system 400,or combinations thereof. The connection with the network 420 may be aphysical connection, such as a wired Ethernet connection or may beestablished wirelessly as discussed below. Likewise, the additionalconnections with other components of the system 900 may be physicalconnections or may be established wirelessly.

The network 420 may include wired networks, wireless networks, orcombinations thereof, and may be representative of the network 122, 124,126, 128 in FIG. 1. The wireless network may be a cellular telephonenetwork, an 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, or WiMax network. Further, thenetwork 420 may be a public network, such as the Internet, a privatenetwork, such as an intranet, or combinations thereof, and may utilize avariety of networking protocols now available or later developedincluding, but not limited to TCP/IP based networking protocols.

While the computer-readable medium is shown to be a single medium, theterm “computer-readable medium” includes a single medium or multiplemedia, such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedcaches and servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” shall also include any medium that is capableof storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution bya processor or that cause a computer system to perform any one or moreof the methods or operations disclosed herein.

In a particular non-limiting, exemplary embodiment, thecomputer-readable medium can include a solid-state memory such as amemory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. Further, the computer-readable medium can be arandom access memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally,the computer-readable medium can include a magneto-optical or opticalmedium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device to capturecarrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over a transmissionmedium. A digital file attachment to an e-mail or other self-containedinformation archive or set of archives may be considered a distributionmedium that is a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, the disclosure isconsidered to include any one or more of a computer-readable medium or adistribution medium and other equivalents and successor media, in whichdata or instructions may be stored.

In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, can be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments can broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that can be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system encompasses software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, in an exemplary, non-limitedembodiment, implementations can include distributed processing,component/object distributed processing, and parallel processing.Alternatively, virtual computer system processing can be constructed toimplement one or more of the methods or functionality as describedherein.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsthat may be implemented in particular embodiments with reference toparticular standards and protocols, the invention is not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP,HTTPS) represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of the variousembodiments. The illustrations are not intended to serve as a completedescription of all of the elements and features of apparatus and systemsthat utilize the structures or methods described herein. Many otherembodiments may be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe disclosure. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from thedisclosure, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure.Additionally, the illustrations are merely representational and may notbe drawn to scale. Certain proportions within the illustrations may beexaggerated, while other proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, thedisclosure and the figures are to be regarded as illustrative ratherthan restrictive.

One or more embodiments of the disclosure may be referred to herein,individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merely forconvenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of thisapplication to any particular invention or inventive concept. Moreover,although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any subsequent arrangementdesigned to achieve the same or similar purpose may be substituted forthe specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover anyand all subsequent adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the description.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R.§1.72(b) and is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, various features may begrouped together or described in a single embodiment for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure. This disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter may be directed toless than all of the features of any of the disclosed embodiments. Thus,the following claims are incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as defining separately claimedsubject matter.

To clarify the use in the pending claims and to hereby provide notice tothe public, the phrases “at least one of <A>, <B>, . . . and <N>” or “atleast one of <A>, <B>, . . . <N>, or combinations thereof” are definedby the Applicant in the broadest sense, superceding any other implieddefinitions herebefore or hereinafter unless expressly asserted by theApplicant to the contrary, to mean one or more elements selected fromthe group comprising A, B, . . . and N, that is to say, any combinationof one or more of the elements A, B, . . . or N including any oneelement alone or in combination with one or more of the other elementswhich may also include, in combination, additional elements not listed.

It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description beregarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understoodthat it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that areintended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.

We claim:
 1. A method of completing a task in a non-secure environment with respect to a secure object, the method comprising: receiving, by a processor, in a secure environment, the secure object with respect to which the task is to be performed; dividing, by the processor, the secure object into at least two or more secure sub-objects each comprising data and one or more contexts associated therewith, the one or more contexts each characterizing the data as secure; further dividing, by the processor, the secure sub-objects such that each data of the two or more secure sub-objects is disassociated from each of the associated one or more contexts such that none of the secure characterization of the data is distributed with the disassociated data, the task comprising one or more sub-tasks to be performed with respect to the disassociated data of each of the two or more secure sub-objects; arranging, by the processor, for the performance of the one or more sub-tasks with a selected subset of a set of available participants of a workforce, each of the available participants being associated with one or more attributes which characterize the associated available participant, the selection of the subset being based thereon; and distributing, by the processor, to the subset at least one of the disassociated data such that the respective sub-task may be performed with respect thereto.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one of the one or more attributes characterizes the associated available participant as one of an employee of an entity from the secure object is received, an employee of an entity which receives the secure object, an independent contractor, an ad hoc employee, a volunteer, or a combination thereof.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one of the one or more attributes that characterizes the associated available participant as one of availability, cost, quality of work product, or a combination thereof.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: generating, by the processor, at least one duplicate of the disassociated data; and wherein distributing further comprises distributing the at least one duplicate of the associated data to a different subset of the set of available participants.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one duplicate of the associated data is distributed based on participant attributes.
 6. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving, by the processor, results of the performance of each sub-task; and compiling, by the processor, the results, the compilation being substantially similar to a result of the completion of the task on the secure object.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset is in a non-secure environment, and wherein the ability to discern the secure characterization of the data in the non-secure environment is substantially reduced.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the one or more contexts comprises an attribute of the associated data.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the disassociating further comprises separating, by the processor, the attribute from the data.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the attribute comprises a number of alphanumeric digits in the data.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the disassociating further comprises dividing, by the processor, the data into at least two disassociated data, each of the at least two disassociated data comprising a sub-set of the number of alphanumeric digits such that the number of alphanumeric digits in the data cannot be discerned from each sub-set of digits alone.
 12. The method of claim 1 wherein the secure object comprises a representation of a handwriting, a picture, an image, a facsimile, a document, an audio recording, a video recording, or combinations thereof.
 13. A system for facilitating completion of a task in a non-secure environment with respect to a secure object, the system comprising: at least one processor configured to operate as: a project receiver operative to receive, in a secure environment, the secure object with respect to which the task is to be performed; an object separator coupled with the project receiver and operative to divide the secure object into at least two or more secure sub-objects each comprising data and one or more contexts associated therewith, the one or more contexts each characterizing the data as secure; an object disassociator coupled with the object separator and operative to further separate the two or more secure sub-objects so as to disassociate each data of the two or more secure sub-objects from each of the associated one or more contexts such that none of the secure characterization of the data is distributed with the disassociated data, the task comprising one or more sub-tasks to be performed with respect to the disassociated data of each of the two or more secure sub-objects; and a distributor coupled with the object disassociator and the task divider and operative to distribute to a selected subset of participants of a workforce comprising a plurality of subsets, each of the participants being associated with one or more attributes which characterize the associated participant, the selection of the subset being based thereon, at least one of the disassociated data such that the respective sub-task may be performed with respect thereto, and wherein the ability to discern the secure characterization of the is substantially reduced.
 14. The system of claim 13 wherein the one of the one or more attributes characterizes the associated available participant as one of an employee of an entity from the secure object is received, an employee of an entity which receives the secure object, an independent contractor, an ad hoc employee, a volunteer, or a combination thereof.
 15. The system of claim 13 wherein the distributor is further operative to distribute at least one duplicate of the disassociated data to a different subset of the one or more participants.
 16. The system of claim 15 wherein the at least one duplicate of the associated data is distributed based on participant attributes.
 17. The system of claim 13 further comprising: a result receiver operative to receive results of the performance of each sub-task; and a result compiler operative to compile the results, the compilation being substantially similar to a result of the completion of the task on the secure object.
 18. The system of claim 13 wherein distributor is further operative to distribute the disassociated data based on participant attributes indicating the participants of the subset are in a non-secure environment.
 19. The system of claim 13, wherein the at least one of the one or more contexts comprises an attribute of the associated data, and wherein the object disassociator is further operative to separate the attribute from the data.
 20. A non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions that when executed by a processor are operable to cause a system to facilitate completion of a task, the instructions operative to: receive the secure object with respect to which the task is to be performed; divide the secure object into at least two or more secure sub-objects each comprising data and one or more contexts associated therewith, the one or more contexts each characterizing the data as secure; further divide the secure sub-objects so as to disassociate each data of the two or more secure sub-objects from each of the associated one or more contexts such that none of the secure characterization of the data is distributed with the disassociated data, the task comprising one or more sub-tasks to be performed with respect to the disassociated data of each of the two or more secure sub-objects; and distribute at least one of the disassociated data and a copy of the disassociated data to at least one selected subset of available participants of a workforce, each of the available participants being associated with one or more attributes which characterize the associated available participant, the selection of the subset being based thereon such that the respective sub-task may be performed with respect thereto. 